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Interview with Francesco Esposto – Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Acque Bresciane.

This month’s guest is Francesco Esposto, Head of Sustainability and Innovation at Acque Bresciane. We are discussing sustainability with a Water Service Provider that it is also a Società Benefit: enjoy your reading!

1. As the climate crisis deepens, the supply and use of water resources are increasingly at central to environmental issues. As a public water supplier, how do you perceive and define your sustainability mission?

Providing an integrated water service is itself a circular economy strategy: not only does it concern supplying drinking water to private dwellings, but it also involves the management of sewerage and purification. Water is captured, used, and must be returned to the environment in the same conditions as it was taken, if not better. Hence our purpose, “Every drop counts: players in sustainability, competent for innovation,” which we have declined in the nine goals of our Sustainability Plan for 2045. Some of these are fundamentally environmental objectives, such as halving water losses, improving the organoleptic quality of water, and fully reusing resources coming out of sewage treatment plants. Others relate to social welfare both inside and outside the company: workplace safety, gender equality and welfare both in the office and on construction sites, but also the protection of the most vulnerable users and the promotion of a culture of sustainability.

2. In an area as rich in water resources as Brescia, wastewater and drinking water treatments play a key role. How can waste be minimized and circularity of water life ensured during these procedures?

Although our land has historically been defined as water rich, climate change is making us question this belief. Citizens in the provinnce of Brescia are receive water coming from different sources. The main sources are goundwaters and aquifiers located as deep as hundreds of meters below our soil. But water is also withdrawn from surface sources such as Lake Garda and springs in mountain areas. This differentiation of sources involves the combination of different sampling, treatment and management systems. As suppliers we are aiming to interconnect the hydropotable networks of the different municipalities, in order to ensure a capability for mutual aid and a movement of water between territories in case of need. Collaboration with public agencies and citizens, especially during summer periods, is also crucial. Several water consumption restriction orders were issued in 2022 due to reduced availability, and the responses were very positive: we registered several percentage points of use reduction. Thus, a message we are increasingly trying to convey is conscious water management at the household level, which can be done by avoiding using high-quality tap water for everything.

3. The water supply and network are increasingly at risk of being affected by extreme weather events such as droughts or hydrogeological disruptions. Have you put in place prevention strategies and risk management processes?

First and foremost, our engagement in research and land study activities is crucial. We collaborate with several universities in Lombardy, such as the University of Brescia and the Polytechnic University of Milan, to investigate the effects of climate change on resource behavior and subsurface dynamics. It is important, for example, to understand the functioning of aquifers, groundwater trends, or the interaction between surface water and groundwater, and to do this we need to clearly map the territory down to important depths such as 300 meters. The purpose of these projects is always operational: depending on the outcomes, we choose how and where to take the resources, how to improve the network, and how to develop models that can anticipate phenomena and prevent disasters. Again, then, working together with municipalities is crucial: when it comes to underground utilities and public works, it is necessary to have a holistic vision: for instance, considering how the water runoff dynamics work, contemplating scenarios of extreme weather events and pondering natural solutions. To give an example, it is now well known how beneficial it can be to have green urban areas that collect rainwater and trees that allow proper drainage and storage. Conveying these messages and building shared projects with public entities is essential, especially in territories like Brescia, where lake areas, plateaus, mountain villages and touristic municipalities coexist.

4. What role do research and innovation play in optimizing resources and delivering a high-quality service?

In addition to the aforementioned collaboration with universities, I would like to emphasize the increasingly importance of digitalization. Digital infrastructures for data transmission and real-time monitoring are crucial in order to deliver a high-quality, safe service. This also means taking care of staff training and having employees who can read, interpret and apply data correctly.

3. In light of the above, how does Acque Bresciane plan to collect data related to circular economy processes, espacially facing the entry into force of the new Corportate Sustainability Reporting Directive?

We are also wondering a lot about this aspect. The “regulation tsunami” happening at the European level is an important process and I see it as very consistent and share its principles. On the other hand, however, the confusion and disalignment among the various European rules results in a great deal of uncertainty on the part of companies about how things will evolve. We were fortunate enough to go into business in 2007, and from the very beginning we built a corporate governance with a strong focus on sustainability. We have drafted a Charter of Fundamentals, defined purpose, and issued a voluntary sustainability report from the very first year. 2022 was the sixth year in a row in which the report received external certification. In short, we have implemented a number of reporting-conscious business processes, and it is not trivial for a company of our size. However, we have great difficulty with some industry standards that still do not exist. For example, the water service should be a sustainable by definition, but in Italy it is among the ones that require the most energy because of the need to cope with the different moving and pumping operations. We are managing the issue by buying green energy and producing as much as possible, for example through solar panels, but energy consumption remains high. The same is true in other areas, such as waste management or emissions. We will have to see trends and choices, but in any case companies will need to be given the time to develop a holistic vision and a long-term strategy to then be able to systematically do reporting efficiently.

NB: The interviews reported here are not part of paid commercial services. They are for the sole purpose of sharing ideas, projects and reflections among De-LAB newsletter subscribers.a gli iscritti alla newsletter De-LAB.